Escape to the Country (23 page)

"Did we? I don't remember. I panicked."

"Yes, but while you were panicking, you were saving them. All of
them."

"Leah? Jayne?" Duncan whispered through the door.

"We're awake," Leah replied.

He came in, carrying an armful of clothes. "These are Mum's,
she'd want you to have them. I've made some tea, I'll bring that up,
then leave you in peace."

Duncan returned with a tray loaded with tea, toast and biscuits.
"Bathroom is just next door. Please help yourself to anything
you want."

"Thanks," Jayne whispered.

"Yes, thank you, Duncan." Leah wanted to know why he had
been sleeping at Oliver Gilmore-Bunce's house, but couldn't bring
herself to say anything. She'd jumped to enough conclusions about G-B
already.

After a shower and breakfast, the women both felt much better, even
in their borrowed clothes.

"Jayne, doesn't it seem odd to you that Duncan was sleeping here
last night?"

"No. Where would you expect him to sleep?"

"I, well..." She'd imagined herself sleeping with him, but
never considered where that might be. "He lives in? OK that
makes sense, but surely his mother can't live here too?" She
indicated the clothes Duncan had given them.

"I thought you... You'd best ask him, I think."

"I will."

She didn't get the chance for quite some time. Jayne and Duncan
discussed plans for getting food and bedding for her animals as he
drove them back to Primrose Cottage. When they got there, Jim had
arrived. He hugged Jayne, then Leah.

Poor man looked as though he'd been crying. He told them he'd heard
about the fire and drove straight over. "There was no one here
and you didn't answer your phone."

"Oh, Jim. I'm so sorry you were worried. We're fine, look."

Jim stared at Jayne then glanced at Leah before nodding his head.

"The animals too. Everyone's safe," Jayne assured him.

Together, the four of them heard the fire officer's assessment. They
learned the barn and the cattle and sheep pens were unsafe and would
have to be demolished after a further investigation was carried out
to find the cause of the fire. All the hay and straw was ruined, plus
a lot of equipment and the thatch on the cottage needed replacing.

"It did anyway," Jayne told him. "It's safe to go in
though, is it?"

"Yes, the damage to the house is just superficial."

They thanked him.

"And thank you, Duncan," Jayne said. "I'm going to see
if I can salvage anything to feed the lambs with. Your men dragged
out a lot of stuff from the barn so I think I'll be lucky. Duncan,
Leah wants to know why you're living at Home Farm."

"Ah. Yes."

Jayne called Tarragon, grabbed Jim's hand and left them.

"I expect there's a simple explanation?" Leah asked
hopefully. Almost any explanation would have satisfied her as long as
it meant she could fall into his arms and have him hold her tight for
a long time.

"There is. I'm Oliver Gilmore-Bunce."

"Who? What?"

"Oliver Duncan Alan Gilmore-Bunce, to be precise."

"You can't be."

"Yes I can. I'm named after my dad, Oliver Thomas Cyril
Gilmore-Bunce. All the men in the family have been called Oliver, so
we use one of our middle names. Home Farm is my home. I took over the
business when Dad got ill."

"You are Oliver Gilmore-Bunce?" He couldn't be. Leah could
feel her body shaking and her nails digging painfully into her palms,
but she couldn't do anything to stop it. All those things she'd said
about him. How could he have made such a fool of her? "I thought
you cared about me, perhaps even loved me and that we had a future
together and instead you've been lying to me the whole time."

"Lying? About what?"

"Your name. You said you were Duncan."

"And so I am. I usually only give my full name on tax returns,
but if I'd realised I'd ever be accused of misleading you, I'd have
given the full ten syllable version while you sank deeper into the
mud." He sounded as angry as she felt.

He had a point, but he must have known she'd thought he and G-B were
two separate people. Of course he did, he'd let her rant about the
awful things G-B had done and never once even tried to tell her the
truth. He was a manipulative and deceitful as she'd always thought
him.

"You said... you let me think... Adam wanted to marry me and I
said no because I thought... " Her sobs prevented her saying
more. She couldn't think of anything except that Duncan had lied and
because of that she'd told him she hated him. That made her a bigger
liar than he was.

"I do care, Leah. I love you, I want to marry you and..."
He tried to put his arms around her, but she pushed him away.

"Don't touch me."

"Leah please."

"If you love someone you don't lie to them."

"I didn't, I just..."

"Go, just go." She pushed past him and ran for the safety
of Primrose Cottage.

He'd have to walk home, but she didn't care. She slammed the door,
sank against it and sobbed. Eventually she heard her phone ringing.
She scrambled to find it and flipped it open. It was Rachel calling.
Another sob escaped her. She'd hoped it would be Duncan and he'd
somehow found something to say that would make everything all right.

The phone kept ringing, so she answered.

"Leah, I've got great news. Adam Ferrand has been arrested!"

Chapter 15

"In what way can that possibly be good news?" Leah
demanded.

"He's the one who stole the client's money. You're in the clear,
Leah. You can come back to Prophet Margin anytime you want."

"Adam stole the money and framed me?"

"Well, it's not quite as simple as that. He didn't actually
steal anything. Well technically I suppose he did, but not for
himself. He made some bad investments for his clients, then tried to
cover it up by moving money around. Apparently, he kept hoping to
make enough to replace what he'd moved and cover his tracks and it
would probably have worked if Mr Gilmore-Bunce hadn't needed the
money for his father's medical care."

Poor Duncan, already worried about his father, he'd discovered the
company he's trusted with his money had defrauded him.

Rachel continued, "Adam said he hadn't meant to implicate you,
but he'd needed to use another account and had got lucky and guessed
your passwords. He knew you were completely honest, so didn't think
anyone would ever seriously consider you guilty. I think he was
telling the truth. He seemed genuinely upset about the problems he'd
caused you and worried about what you'd think."

She was glad now their relationship had been kept secret or she might
have been implicated in the fraud. Not that it really mattered, she
realised. As she had no intention of returning to Prophet Margin it
didn't matter what they thought. She had thought she cared what
Duncan thought, but now she didn't know.

"Are you OK?" Rachel asked.

"Not really. This is a bit of a shock."

"Yes, it must be."

"Thanks for letting me know, Rachel and for all you've done."

"No problem. You'll be getting all this officially in a day or
so. Just thought you'd like to know as soon as possible."

They agreed to talk then, after Leah had a chance to think about the
news. She couldn't think though, not about anything positive.
Everything she'd wanted was lost to her. She couldn't even cry, just
sat on the floor staring into space and feeling numb.

After a while she felt something wet on her hand. It was Tarragon
gently nudging her.

"Good boy, you never lie to me, do you?" She wrapped her
body around his. The dog lay placid as though sharing her pain.

"Leah?" Jayne said from the doorway. "Can I come in?"

"Of course."

Jayne came closer.

"What am I going to do?" Leah sobbed.

"About what, lovey?" She lowered herself onto the floor
next to Leah and took her hand.

"Everything. It's all gone wrong. I wanted Duncan but now I hate
him and he hates me. I thought I wanted to marry Adam, but when he
proposed I didn't want to anymore and... Oh you don't know. It was
him, he stole the money. Sort of."

"Adam? And blamed you? That ba... But he did care about you, I
saw that. How could he do it?"

"I don't know. It's complicated. He made a mistake and then I
suppose he just got caught up in things. He never could admit if he
was wrong."

"So, do they think you were involved?"

Leah shook her head. "I could go back to Prophet Margin, if I
wanted to but I don't. But that doesn't matter. Your farm, Jayne. I
wanted to stay here, but it's worse for you. This is your life and
it's gone up in smoke."

"No love, not my life, just a barn. I'm insured. I'll get
another barn built. I haven't lost anything important. I'll carry on
and you're more than welcome to stay. There's plenty of work to be
done."

"Thanks, Jayne." Leah hugged her. "At least I can rely
on you."

"Now what's all this nonsense about hating Duncan?"

"He lied to me."

"No. There was a bit of confusion over his name. It's not like
he was committing fraud."

"No, it's worse. Adam was just trying to cover up his mistake.
Duncan lied about who he really is. He knew how I felt about him and
he deliberately tricked me into saying horrible things about him."

"Rubbish! When did he lie?"

"All the time. Right from the start."

"No, that was me. I knew who he was, but you were so against
Oliver Gilmore-Bunce I didn't think you'd give him a chance, so I
didn't tell you who he was. Duncan wanted to be honest with you, but
I convinced him to wait."

"You lied? Yes, I suppose you did, but... Oh I don't know about
anything anymore."

"The sheep need feeding. Nothing like a bit of work to clear
your head." Jayne stood up, then hauled Leah to her feet. "What
on earth's happened to your boots?"

Leah looked down at her feet. "I stomped out some burning straw
last night, must have melted them a bit."

"A bit? Aren't they uncomfortable?"

"Not really, but I guess they'll leak."

"Better wear the spare ones again."

Jayne was right, being out in the sunshine and doing something
constructive did make her feel better. Her life wasn't over. She had
a home with Jayne and the offer of a job with Jim. Things were better
than when she'd driven down to Winkleigh Marsh earlier in the year,
even if it didn't feel as though they were.

Leah grabbed a bale of hay and carried it into the sheep field.
Remembering how she'd been unable to lift one on her own when she
came made her realise how much she'd changed physically. She didn't
seem to have developed much emotionally though as her irrational
dislike of G-B still seemed to be clouding her judgement. Was she
going to believe Adam's opinion of the man, or that of Jayne and her
own heart?

She stomped across to where the sheep were usually fed, only then
noticing that the metal rack had been moved from its previous
position. Jayne must have done that while Leah was in London. She
wondered why as she changed course and walked towards it.

The answer came to her just too late. Where the sheep had repeatedly
gathered in the same spot they'd churned up the ground, turning it to
mud. Leah, weighed down with the bale, was stuck just as she had been
before. This time her phone wasn't flat; it was in Primrose Cottage.
She didn't even have Tarragon with her.

"Want some help?"

She couldn't turn to see who had asked but she didn't need to.
Duncan's deep voice was unmistakable.

"I can get myself out," she snapped. Immediately she felt
guilty. She was as angry with herself as she was with him.

"Really?"

Not without leaving the boots behind, she couldn't.

"You weren't carrying a bale of hay last time. At least let me
take that."

She didn't protest as he came closer and took the heavy bale from her
aching hands. He took it to the hay rack and put it in place, removed
the strings so the sheep could eat the hay, then returned slowly to
stand before her.

If only she could turn back time to when they'd first met and start
again without the lies.

"Can't we start again?" he asked.

She didn't answer. Just because they wanted the same thing didn't
mean it was possible.

"Hi. I'm Oliver Duncan Alan Gilmore-Bunce. Please call me
Duncan, nearly everyone does. By the way, I haven't accused you of
fraud, I just asked Prophet Margin why there wasn't as much money in
my account as I'd expected and they promised to investigate. Sorry
about the abrupt instructions I sent regarding my family's
investments, but I'd just taken over that side of things, it didn't
really interest me and I was worried about Dad."

She hung her head. Of course he couldn't have explained all that at
their first meeting, particularly as he had no idea where she worked
or that she'd care what name was on his birth certificate.

"Hi, I'm Leah Jayne Tilbury," she mumbled. "I used to
live with the man who embezzled your savings. I believed the lies he
told me about you rather than the evidence of your actions and the
assurances of Jayne. I'm a complete idiot who can't even walk across
a field without getting stuck."

He raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. "OK if I call you
Leah?"

She gave a small nod.

"I want to rescue you, Leah. That's all I've wanted since I
first saw you."

It's all she'd wanted then and all she wanted now. She looked up at
him and tried to smile.

Duncan strode over and lifted her free of the mud.
He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her, leaving her
feet
, in their bright stripy socks,
dangling well above ground level.

"I love you," he said.

She clung on to him as he kissed her passionately.